Demirbank Bulgaria has been bought by a Turkish consortium consisting of the former owner of the bankrupt Turkish bank, Halit Cingilioglu, and Mr Aidan Dogan, the owner of Dogan Holding. The consideration was not disclosed. A total of six bids were received for Demirbank Bulgaria. The consortium is also bidding to buy several of Demirbank’s other subsidiaries, for which it has offered to pay US$95m.
According to estimates supplied to BCR Publishing, Demirbank Bulgaria had a factored volume of DEM4m in 2000, accounting for roughly 5% of Bulgaria’s total factored volume for the year. All of Bulgaria’s recorded factoring activity in 2000 was accounted for by international factoring. Whilst Demirbank Bulgaria was, by volume, the smallest of four players in a small market, there is optimism regarding the future of factoring in Bulgaria. Bojidar Archinkov, formerly of Demirbank Bulgaria, has said “the potential market for factoring is 20 times larger.”
